Two Coyotes take down a Deer – Ketchum, Idaho
A guy grooming a ski trail at the Sun Valley Ski Resort made a video of two coyotes taking down a deer. It may have been filmed on the weekend of 25/26 February. It was filmed at night.
I have never heard of a coyote taking down a deer. I thought coyotes killed rabbits or smaller animals.
Unusual coyote behavior reported in Bonner County in North Idaho
The Road 
I sent this video to a friend in northern California. This is her reply:
“I have watched them herd antelope, waiting for one to break and run from the group. They separate the animal off, there is usually 3 to 5 and they have a plan. Coyotes are amazingly smart and cunning. Nature is cruel. Between the mountain lions and coyotes our deer herd is almost gone. People do not realize the only way to control predators (if people do not kill them) is starvation. In the 30’s-40’s between northeastern Washoe County and Modoc County there was only one known coyote. There were over 300,000 sheep between the two counties. Coyotes love sheep so the herders killed them to protect their sheep. In that time deer, antelope, sage grouse and other wildlife flourished. The government made decisions that were detrimental to the sheep industry. Many in the industry went broke, quite a few changed to cattle, others moved somewhere else to survive.
“While the people studying the decline in wildlife say that it is grazing, global warming, farming but not the predators….
They have brought in trash bears from Tahoe, previously they brought in mountain lions and wolves are on the way. The claim is balance in nature, but it is survival. The government keeps spending millions, instead of looking at the nonprofits who are making money with propaganda and worthless studies.
“I have watched this for most of my life. It is truly heart breaking. I was tracked by a mountain lion I know how scary it feels.”
One time I was hitchhiking in Montana and this guy picked me somewhere north of Arlee. He told me that once he was out hunting and I think his truck broke down. So he had to walk down the highway (probably US 93). The highway ran through this canyon and he saw this mountain lion tracking him from the ridge of the canyon. It gave him the creeps.
I was hitchhiking in Montana and got dropped off in Philipsburg. I began walking south; the sun was down and it was really dark. I walked maybe two or three miles and this deputy sheriff picked me up to give me a ride. Just as I got in the car, I saw this animal leap across in front of the car. The deputy sheriff exclaimed, “Did you see that?!” It was a mountain lion.
I said, “Do you think it was tracking me?”
“No,” the deputy replied. “There are plenty of deer in the area.”
_____
Talking to a Coyote in the Nevada Desert
I meet a curious coyote while eating a lemon pie.
I was walking south of Cedarville, California in the fall of 1999 and got a ride or two to Eagleville. There was this convenience store in Eagleville, so I thought I would stop by and get something to eat. The lady who owned the store was very friendly. She said that they were closing the store down in the next few days, so she gave me some beef jerky and a few lemon pies. I was very grateful. She told me that she was going to drive to Fernley, Nevada the next morning, so she would be looking for me tomorrow and give me a ride.
I walked out of the convenience store and got a ride or two south into Nevada and was dropped off in the middle of somewhere. It was close to sundown, so I walked for a short while and then walked out into the sagebrush and slept there that night. I was somewhere between Eagleville and Gerlach, Nevada.
The next morning, I woke up and sat up in my sleeping bag and began eating some beef jerky. Right now this coyote walked out of the sagebrush maybe fifteen yards from where I was sitting and began sniffing the air. He looked at me as if I would throw him a piece of beef jerky.
I looked at him and said, “Listen, coyote, this is my beef jerky. Go catch a rabbit or something.”
He looked disappointed and walked back into the sagebrush.
I am guessing that coyotes have an excellent sense of smell. He either heard me walking around last night and getting ready to sleep, or else he could smell me. I believe he was sleeping very close to my camp site last night — and maybe he wasn’t sleeping — maybe he was watching me.
After I got done with my beef jerky, I began to eat a lemon pie. The coyote reappeared from the sagebrush and began to sniff the air. He may have never smelled a lemon pie before. Not too many lemon pies are being baked in this part of the desert. He was even closer now — maybe ten yards from where I was sitting.
I looked at the coyote again and said, “This is my lemon pie, coyote. Beat it!”
He walked across my camp site, looking at me like a dog, trying to make me feel guilty for not giving him something to eat. He wandered into the sagebrush and I never saw him again.
With my breakfast finished, I rolled up my sleeping bag in my backpack and walked to the road. I may have walked a mile or so and the lady from the convenience store in Eagleville picked me up and drove me all the way to Fernley.
I told her those lemon pies really tasted good.
[Published by Digihitch—submitted December 25, 2011]
Pingback: Hitchhiking Stories from Digihitch | The Road
I saw this in Range Magazine:
WHAT’S YOUR CHOICE?
CALIFORNIA
The governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks and kills the governor’s dog, then bites the governor. The governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie Bambi and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural. He calls Animal Control, which captures the coyote and bills the state $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it. He calls the veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the state $200 testing it for diseases. The governor goes to the hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and getting his wound bandaged. The running trail gets shut down for six months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals. The governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a “coyote awareness program” for residents of the area. The state Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world. The governor’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The state spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training for the nature of coyotes. PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files a $5 million suit against the state.
TEXAS
The governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog. The governor shoots the coyote with his state-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The governor spent 50 cents on a .45 ACP hollow-point cartridge. The buzzards eat the dead coyote. And that, my friends, is why California is broke and Texas is not.
–Range Magazine
Fall 2017